Methods and systems for inbound and outbound call control

ABSTRACT

An indication of an outgoing call may be received at a call control unit communicatively coupled to, and/or resident within, a telephone. The indication may include identification information for the outgoing call. It may be determined whether additional information regarding a called party associated with the identification information exists, and if so, a first operation may be performed on the incoming call responsively to the additional information, otherwise, a second operation may be performed on the incoming call responsively to an absence of the additional information. The additional information my include a user-configurable list of desired callers (e.g., a whitelist) and/or undesired callers (e.g., a blacklist). The additional information may also include caller identification information and/or a spam score. The first operation may be blocking the incoming call, forwarding the incoming call to a voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming call to the telephone, enabling the telephone to receive the incoming call, and/or answering the incoming call and then terminating the incoming call. In some embodiments, the first and/or second operations performed on the incoming call is/are user configurable.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a CONTINUATION-IN-PART of U.S. application Ser. No.15/337,811 filed on Oct. 28, 2016, which is a CONTINUATION-IN-PART ofU.S. application Ser. No. 14/552,267, which has matured into U.S. Pat.No. 9,491,286, filed on Nov. 24, 2014, which is a CONTINUATION of U.S.application Ser. No. 14/038,396, which has matured into U.S. Pat. No.8,917,843, filed Sep. 26, 2013 which is a NON-PROVISIONAL of and claimspriority to U.S. Application No. 61/715,076, filed Oct. 17, 2012, thecontents of each are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and systems for controllinginbound and/or outbound calls and, more particularly, relates to methodsand systems for evaluating inbound and/or outbound calls according toone or more criterion.

BACKGROUND

Unsolicited and unwanted telephone calls, so-called “telemarketing” or“spam” calls, are received by thousands of people every day at, forexample, their residence and/or workplace. The volume of unsolicited andunwanted telephone calls placed has increased dramatically in recentyears with the advent of computer dialed “robocalls” which are able tocall millions of telephone subscribers in a short period of time atminimum expense. Such calls are an unwelcome intrusion into privacy ofthe called party. The annoyance caused by spam calls has prompted theFederal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission(FCC) to generate a “Do Not Call” registry of phone numbers associatedwith individuals who do not want to receive telemarketing calls andtelemarketers are prohibited from calling numbers placed on the Do NotCall registry. The FTC recently hosted a robocall summit with industrystakeholders to help identify solutions to this growing problem. Anotheraspect contributing to the problem is a growing amount of so-called“scam” calls when a caller and/or called party falsely identifieshimself as an authority or business and makes a called party think he orshe dealing with a legitimate authority or business as a way gettingaccess to called party's data and/or finances. Examples of this behaviorinclude IRS scam calls or police scam calls.

SUMMARY

Methods, devices, and systems for controlling inbound and/or outboundtelephone calls are herein described. An indication of an incomingand/or outgoing call may be received at a call control unitcommunicatively coupled to a telephone. In some embodiments, a system ordevice for processing inbound and/or outbound calls may exist separatelyas a stand-alone device ad, in other embodiments, may be a fully orpartially connected to other infrastructure (e.g., the Internet or phoneservice company) and/or one another. The indication may includeidentification information for the incoming and/or outgoing call. It maybe determined whether additional information regarding a caller and/orcalled party associated with the identification information exists, andif so, a first operation may be performed on the incoming and/oroutgoing call responsively to the additional information, otherwise, asecond operation may be performed on the incoming and/or outgoing callresponsively to an absence of the additional information. The additionalinformation may include caller and/or called party identificationinformation and/or a spam score. The first operation may be blocking theincoming and/or outgoing call, forwarding the incoming and/or outgoingcall to a voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming and/or outgoing callto the telephone, enabling the telephone to receive the incoming and/oroutgoing call, and/or answering the incoming and/or outgoing call andthen terminating the incoming and/or outgoing call (disconnecting thecall), warning user about undesired outgoing call, and/or denying toperform such outgoing call, to name a few. In some embodiments, thefirst and/or second operations performed on the incoming and/or outgoingcall is/are user configurable.

In some embodiments, determining whether additional informationregarding a caller and/or called party and/or a called party isassociated with the identification information exists may be performedat the call control unit using information retrieved from a locallyaccessible data store. In other embodiments, determining whetheradditional information regarding a caller and/or called party associatedwith the identification information exists may comprise forwarding theidentification information from the call control unit to a server. Theserver may be operative to determine whether the additional informationregarding a caller and/or called party associated with theidentification information exists. When the additional informationexists, the server may receive the additional information regarding thecaller and/or called party associated with the identificationinformation, otherwise an indication that no additional informationexists may be received from the server.

In some embodiments, an indication that the incoming and/or outgoingcall is undesired may be received at the call control unit and the callcontrol unit may communicate the indication to a server. In someinstances, the additional information may include a user-configurablelist of desired and/or undesired callers and/or called parties and theidentification information for the undesired incoming and/or outgoingcall may be automatically added to the user-configurable list ofundesired callers and/or called parties.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and notlimitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 2 are block diagrams of exemplary systems, consistentwith an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary call control unit,consistent with an embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are block diagrams depicting exemplary call control units,consistent with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary display/LCD, consistentwith an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 depicts exemplary settings for a call control unit, consistentwith an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram depicting a series actions performed by an exemplarycall control unit, consistent with an embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate exemplary user interfaces, consistent with anembodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 10-12 depict processes, consistent with an embodiment of theinvention; and

FIG. 13 is a flowchart depicting an exemplary process consistent with anembodiment of the invention.

Throughout the drawings, the same reference numerals and characters,unless otherwise stated, are used to denote like features, elements,components, or portions of the illustrated embodiments. Moreover, whilethe subject invention will now be described in detail with reference tothe drawings, the description is done in connection with theillustrative embodiments. It is intended that changes and modificationscan be made to the described embodiments without departing from the truescope and spirit of the subject invention as defined by the appendedclaims.

WRITTEN DESCRIPTION

Described herein is an exemplary platform and technology for performingintelligent operations on inbound calls, for example, landline and/orVOIP telephone calls to a called phone number. The present methods andsystems may be employed in the case of voice calls, text messages and/orother inbound or outbound communications to the used phone number. Forease of discussion, throughout the following description, such attemptsto contact a user, or user attempts to contact another party, shall bereferred to as calls or phone calls. It should be understood that thisis not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

Exemplary operations performed on calls include blocking, rejection,redirection (e.g. to a voice mail box or automated message),identification, and an application of privacy controls to an incomingand/or outgoing call. The operations may be applied to incoming and/oroutgoing calls at, for example, the device level (e.g., via a callcontrol unit resident internally or externally to a phone to which anincoming and/or outgoing call is directed) and/or at a network or PSTNlevel.

The present systems and methods source information concerning incomingand/or outgoing call and text message activity from a plurality ofusers, e.g., mobile and landline telephone subscribers, to trackactivity of unwanted calls and messages (e.g., from or to spam callersand/or called parties or telemarketers) via, for example, a centraldatabase (running on, e.g., a web server) and/or through an APIinterface that provides a set of features including call blocking,individual blacklisting and whitelisting of phone numbers or callerand/or called party identifiers, caller and/or called partyidentification, call reporting, and other customizable/user selectablefeatures.

Platform Overview

In one embodiment, the technology employs a web service (e.g.,EveryCall.us) that sources call-related activity from a plurality ofusers and information sources. Users may provide call-relatedinformation via the Web, via mobile or landline communication devices,at the PTSN level via API or other means. Other information sources mayexist at the network level, and/or may include public information e.g.,the Federal Do Not Call Registry. In some embodiments, the web servicemay be located in a hosted environment and provide a secure and uniqueApplication Program Interface (API) which enables a continual dataconnection between the platform and connected devices which may, inturn, be provided to the plurality of users.

Community Blacklist

Some embodiments of the present invention may provide a communityblacklist to users. The community blacklist is a database of identifiers(e.g., telephone numbers, text messaging numbers, and/or caller and/orcalled party id name) and related information that is compiled using aproprietary algorithm that analyzes a large volume of call data reportedfrom users and other sources of data to provide up to the minuteinformation about active, unwanted and spam caller and/or called partiesand text message senders. The result of this analysis may be a score,sometimes referred to herein as a “spam score.”

In some cases, the spam score represents a level of unwanted or spamactivity originating from, or associated with, a given phone number oridentifier. The score may be scaled using, for example, a scale of 0-100with 100 being the maximum level of spam activity across thecommunication network for each identifier. This score is updatedcontinually based on actual activity transpiring on the network.

The spam score algorithm uses, for example, a combination of thefollowing data to identify active unwanted/spam caller and/or calledparties who are then added to the community blacklist:

-   -   Report velocity (# of reports related to a phone number or        caller and/or called party identification information over a        defined period of time).    -   Credibility of users reporting calls/texts/other unwanted        communication. Credibility may be determined by, for example,        tracking the credibility of each user based upon a number of        factors including number of previously made reports, quality of        reports, and number of votes from other users, etc.    -   Number of calls to and/or from users.    -   Number of users who have added the phone number to a private        blacklist over a finite period of time.    -   Number of users who have added the phone number to a private        whitelist over a finite period of time.    -   Number of calls blocked over a defined period of time.    -   Number and velocity of reports.    -   Number of reports from public law enforcement entities such as        the FCC Do Not Call registry or State Attorney Generals offices        (obtained via, for example, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)        request directly from that agency).

The spam score for phone numbers, caller and/or called partyidentification information, and related information that meet a minimumthreshold (which may be user defined) are added to the communityblacklist which is then transmitted to all connected devices (e.g.,mobile, landline, network) on, for example, a real time, periodic,and/or as needed basis. An operation (e.g., call blocking, callforwarding, etc.) may then be applied to, for example, some or allincoming and/or outgoing calls and/or text messages associated withcommunity-blacklisted numbers/caller and/or called parties.

Calculation of a score in this manner prevents wrongfully addingnon-spam/wanted phone numbers to the community blacklist, in partbecause it takes more than just one report, factor or element to passthe threshold and classify the number as spam. Calculation of the scorein this manner may prevent, for example, a single user, or even a groupof users, from wrongfully or maliciously adding numbers or contactinformation to the community blacklist.

In some embodiments, the community blacklist is continually calculatedand updated based on received information. This may be done in real timeor on a periodic or continuous basis. In this way, the information onthe community blacklist is kept current and when a calculated score fora particular phone number or caller and/or called party identificationno longer meets the threshold, it is removed from the communityblacklist and those calls are no longer blocked/operated upon across theplatform.

In some instances, the community blacklist and/or information used tocalculate the community blacklist may be protected with one or moresecurity protocols including, but not limited to, encryption. Thecommunity blacklist and/or information used to calculate the communityblacklist may be protected with one or more security protocols whereverthey are stored and or used including, but not limited to, server 115,data store 120, and/or call control unit 135.

Call Control Landline Device (Landline)

The present invention may be instantiated, in part, in a call controlunit 135 as part of exemplary systems 100, 101, and 200 as depicted inFIGS. 1A, 1B, and 2, respectively. Communication between one or morecomponents of systems 100, 101, and/or 200 may be protected by one ormore security protocols (e.g., encryption, use of passwords,identification verification, etc.). Additionally, or alternatively,information stored on one or more components of systems 100, 101, and/or200 may be protected by one or more security protocols.

Call control unit 135 may reside within various components of a systemand/or may exist as a stand-alone hardware device. For example, callcontrol unit 135 may be configured to be a stand-alone hardware devicecommunicatively connected between a landline or analog telephone 130 andtelephone communication network, such as the public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) 105 as in system 100 of FIG. 1A or may reside intelephone 130 as depicted in system 101 of FIG. 1B. Call control unit135 may also be a component of PSTN 105 as in system 200 of FIG. 2

Call control unit 135 may perform one or more operations on incomingand/or outgoing calls to the telephone 130. For example, in response toreceipt of an inbound call from a calling party 140, the call controlunit 135 may communicate with a server 115 that provides informationassociated with calling party 140, such as the community blacklist(stored on, for example, a data store 120), and/or a user's personalwhitelist and blacklist of phone numbers. In FIG. 1, this communicationis shown as occurring over PSTN 105; however, in other embodiments aseparate data network connection may be used. Upon receipt of theinformation from server 115, call control unit 135 may perform one ormore operations on the incoming and/or outgoing call, as describedfurther below.

Call control unit 135 may be user configurable and the userconfiguration data may be stored, for example, on a data store residentwithin call control unit 135, on server 115, and/or data store 120.Exemplary user configurations include generation and maintenance of apersonal blacklist and/or whitelist of phone numbers or variousoperations to be performed upon an incoming and/or outgoing call basedupon, for example, identification information associated with callingparty 140. A whitelist of phone numbers may include contact informationor phone numbers associated with people/entities the user always wantsto receive a phone call from.

User 145 may directly configure call control unit 135 via, for example,a user interface (e.g., buttons or touch screen). User 145 may alsoconfigure call control unit 135 via user's phone 130 or via anotherinterface (e.g., a computer or mobile communication device)communicatively coupled to call control unit 135 (e.g., via PSTN 105 ora separate data communication network). Such coupling may be indirect,for example, via a web services interface (e.g., provided by server 115)in which configuration information is specified and later downloaded tocall control unit 135. In some embodiments, user 145 may report phonenumbers or caller and/or called party identification information to, forexample, server 115 for inclusion in the community blacklist, which mayautomatically add that caller and/or called party to the users personalblacklist.

On some occasions, call control unit 135 may be enabled to providecaller and/or called party identification information to user 145. Thisidentification information may be retrieved from, for example, datastore 120. This identification information may be provided in additionto, or instead of, traditionally available caller and/or called partyidentification information (e.g., an ANI).

User 145 may also customize the operations performed on an incomingand/or outgoing call-by-call control unit 135 according to one or morecriteria. For example, the user may configure call control unit 135 toautomatically terminate or forward to an automatic message all attemptsto communicate with user 145 from caller and/or called parties includedon the personal and/or community blacklist.

Other exemplary operations that may be performed by call control unit135 include:

-   -   Generation and maintenance of a personal blacklist and whitelist        of phone numbers and caller and/or called party identification        information.        -   Block by area code and wildcards (e.g. 888-237-????).    -   Incoming and/or outgoing caller and/or called party        Identification (e.g., call type (telemarketing, survey, junk        fax, debt collection, etc.) or caller and/or called party name.    -   Spam call reporting.    -   Online backup of settings and lists—restored in the case of        device is lost or damaged.    -   Blocked call/message log.    -   Block Private, Unknown, Restricted, Unavailable Caller and/or        called parties.    -   Privacy Modes and Scheduling        -   Allow whitelist only.        -   Allow contacts only.        -   Allow contacts and whitelist only.        -   Block all calls and texts.    -   Community Blacklist    -   FCC Do Not Call or other government agency integration    -   Call waiting blocking.

The call control unit 135 may intercept incoming and/or outgoing callsthat are on either the community or personal blacklist (and not on thewhitelist) and may perform one or more of the following operations onthe incoming and/or outgoing call:

-   -   Briefly answer the call and hang-up i.e., pick-up and hang-up or        disconnect.    -   Withhold the call via hardware relay.    -   Send to voicemail.    -   Play a recorded message.    -   Modify ring to special ring.    -   Display enhanced caller and/or called party id (e.g. “Spam        Call”).

The call control unit 135 may intercept outgoing calls that are oneither community or personal blacklist (and not on the whitelist) andmay perform one or more of the following operations on the outgoing callin any combination:

-   -   Delay placing outgoing call to warn user and/or receive user        consent to continue placing the call.    -   Let user know that he is about to call to a known harmful        number.    -   Terminate outgoing call.    -   Request user to confirm the call by providing input via call        control unit controls and/or connected telephone.

In many cases the operation may be performed automatically withoutuser's 145 direct knowledge or the ringing of phone 130.

Call Control for Networks (Networks)

The present invention also provides a system for performing operationson calls or attempts to contact user 145 at a network level as shown insystem 200 of FIG. 2. In this instance, the operations performed by callcontrol unit 135 may be performed by a call control unit 135 and aswitch 110 operating together within, for example, PSTN 105. Callcontrol unit 135 and switch 110 may communicate with server 115 and datastore 120 to perform some, or all, of the operations discussed herein atthe network level. In this embodiment, the calls or attempts tocommunicate with user 145 may be operated upon as a service levelintegration whereby a telephone service provider (e.g., VoIP,analog/traditional, wireless) connects with server 115 and/or data store120 to obtain information from the platform (e.g., community blacklist,spam score, caller and/or called party name, report information, abilityto submit reports, etc.) in order to provide customized services to thetelephone service provider's customer base. It is important to note thatin this embodiment, calls are intercepted at the network level therebyeliminating the requirement for any device or software to be implementedor installed by the user.

In summary, upon receiving an indication of an incoming and/or outgoingcall, a call control unit that is communicatively coupled to atelephone, forwards identification information for the incoming and/oroutgoing call to a server (or other computer system). The server isoperative to determine whether additional information regarding a callerand/or called party associated with the identification informationexists, and, if so, provides same to the call control unit (in someinstances, if no such additional information exists, the server sends aresponse indicating same). Based on, and responsive to, the informationreturned from the server (or lack of such information), the call controlunit performs an operation on the incoming and/or outgoing call. Such anoperation may include blocking the incoming and/or outgoing call,forwarding the incoming and/or outgoing call to a voice mailbox,transmitting the incoming and/or outgoing call to the telephone,enabling the telephone to receive the incoming and/or outgoing call,warning user about undesired incoming and/or outgoing call, denyingperformance of an outgoing call, and/or answering the incoming call andthen terminating the incoming call. Either or both of the operation tobe performed and the additional information stored by the server may beuser-configurable. In addition, it is important to note thatcommunication between the components of systems 100 and 200 may befacilitated via wired and/or wireless communicative couplings and, insome instance, may take place over a communication network, such as theInternet.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting an exemplary call control unit 135.Exemplary call control unit 135 includes a display or LCD 305, a userinterface or input keys 315, a wired or wireless transceiver 320 (e.g.,a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth transceiver), a memory 335, and a telephone relay325, all of which may be coupled to a processor core 310. Display or LCD305 may be any appropriate display device and, in some cases, may be atouch-enabled display. Display or LCD 305 may be configured to displayinformation to a user, such as user 145. Display or LCD 305 may befurther configured to receive information from a user, such as user 145,when configured, as is a touch-enabled display. In some embodiments,display or LCD 305 may be optional or absent from call control unit 135altogether. Memory 335 may be configured to store sets of instructions,which when executed by processor core 310, perform one or more of theprocesses described herein. In addition, memory 335 may record actionsexecuted by call control unit 135 (e.g., call blocking or transmissionof spam reports), user configuration settings, a community blacklist,and/or a user's blacklist and/or whitelist. In some embodiments, memory335 may include different components such as, but not limited to,volatile and nonvolatile memory storage.

User interface or input keys 315 may be any configuration of input keys(e.g., alpha-numeric, pictographic, and/or arrow keys) by which a user,such as user 145, may input information into call control unit 135.Processor core 310 may be any appropriate processor enabled to executeone or more processes described herein and may control the operation ofone or more components of call control unit 135. In some embodiments,processor core 310 may include 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of re-writablestorage. wired or wireless transceiver 320 may be configured to enablecall control unit 135 to communicate with one or more components ofsystem 100 and/or 200 or, in some instances, may be replaced withanother kind of wired and/or wireless communication. In someembodiments, call control unit 135 may be communicatively coupled toPSTN 105 via a phone line 330 and may receive incoming and/or outgoingcalls at relay 325 via phone line 330. Relay 325 may be configured totransfer an incoming and/or outgoing call to telephone 130 responsivelyto, for example, instructions from processor core 310. In someembodiments, relay 325 may physically connect phone line 330 totelephone 130. In many cases, the default position for relay 325 will beclosed. When a call is received by relay 325 via phone line 330, relay325 may open thereby preventing telephone 130 from receiving the calluntil processor core 310 determines whether the incoming and/or outgoingcall should be transferred to telephone 130. When processor core 310determines that the incoming and/or outgoing call should be transferredto telephone 130, processor core 310 may transmit a command to close torelay 325, which, upon receipt, closes relay 325 thereby enabling theincoming and/or outgoing call to be connected to telephone 130. Whenprocessor core 310 determines that the incoming and/or outgoing callshould not be transferred to telephone 130, processor core 310 maytransmit a command to keep relay 325 open, which, upon receipt, opensrelay 325, or maintains a previously open position, thereby blocking theincoming and/or outgoing call from being connected to telephone 130.Alternatively, when relay is maintained in an open position and anincoming and/or outgoing call is received that processor core 310determines should not be connected to telephone 130, processor core 310may do nothing, thereby maintaining the open position of relay 325.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting a top plan view of an exemplary callcontrol unit 135 including display/LCD 305 and multiple input keys 315.FIG. 5 is a side perspective view of an exemplary call control unit 135including display/LCD 305 and multiple input keys 315, and multipleports 505 _(A-E). Multiple ports 505 _(A-E) may be uni- orbi-directional. Exemplary ports 505 _(A-E) include phone jack 505 _(A),line in 505 _(B), network connection 505 _(c), USB port 505, Ethernetports, and power port 505 _(E).

FIG. 6 is a block diagram depicting display/LCD 305 and multiple inputkeys 315 a-c, wherein display/LCD 305 is a touch-enabled display andmultiple input keys 315 a-c are provided via the touch-enabled display.Selection of input key 315 a may enable a user to block a call and, onsome occasions, when input key 315 a is selected, a blocked call reportmay be sent to, for example, a server such as server 115. As can be seenin FIG. 6, display/LCD 305 may be enabled to display informationregarding an incoming and/or outgoing call, such as call type, a spamscore, a phone number, and a name associated with the caller and/orcalled party.

Call control unit 135 may be preprogrammed with default settings and, insome instances, may be user configurable. FIG. 7 depicts some of thesettings for call control unit 135 that may be user configurable 701 bya user, such as user 145. For example, a user may configure a personalblacklist 702 and/or a personal whitelist 703 of phone numbers and/orcontact information. The user may establish a preferred configurationfor accessing a community blacklist 704 (e.g., full access or partialaccess). A user may also configure one or more user settings 705 of callcontrol unit 135. Exemplary user settings include display preferences,language preferences, and energy-saving (e.g., sleep setting)preferences. A user may further configure online backup preferences 706.Online backup preferences 706 may serve to establish the frequency(e.g., daily or weekly) at which information stored in call control unit135 is backed up online. A user may also configure call control unit 135to perform certain operations according to a schedule. For example, auser may configure call control unit to forward all incoming and/oroutgoing calls to a voicemail box during certain hours of the day (e.g.,at night) or for a period of days as might be the case when the userwill be away from call control unit 135 and/or telephone 130 for aperiod of days (e.g., on vacation).

FIG. 8 is a block diagram depicting a series of actions call controlunit 135 may be enabled to execute when controlling incoming and/oroutgoing calls or messages 800, some of which may be user configurableas discussed above with regard to FIG. 7. Action 801 enables callcontrol unit to block an incoming and/or outgoing call according to aphone number associated with the incoming and/or outgoing call and callsmay be blocked by area code via action 802. Incoming and/or outgoingcalls may be blocked by wildcard (action 803) and private and/or unknowncaller and/or called parties may be blocked (action 804). Incomingand/or outgoing calls that are associated with a particular type ofphone number may be blocked (action 805) and incoming and/or outgoingcalls from spoofed or malformed phone numbers for may be blocked(actions 806 and 807, respectively). In some embodiments, call controlunit 135 may disconnect a blocked call (action 810), pickup and hang upa blocked call (action 811), or send a blocked call to voicemail (action812). In other embodiments, call control unit 135 may play a recordedmessage (action 813) or block call waiting features for an incomingand/or outgoing call (action 814).

Call control unit 135 may also execute privacy and scheduling modeactions 821, such as only allowing calls from whitelisted phone numbersto be transferred to a telephone (action 822), only allowing calls froma contact list of phone numbers to be transferred to a telephone (action823), only allowing calls from a contact list and a whitelist of phonenumbers to be transferred to a telephone (action 824), and blocking allcalls and texts (action 825).

Call control unit 135 may further identify incoming and/or outgoingcaller and/or called parties (action 831) and/or log and/or otherwiserecord blocked calls and/or messages (action 832). Call control unit 135may also report a phone call identified as a spam call to, for example,a server such as server 115 (action 833). Call control unit 135 may beintegrated with the Do Not Call registry of the FCC and FTC (action834). Further, call control unit may add phone numbers associated withblocked incoming and/or outgoing calls to a user's blacklist (action835) and/or add reported phone numbers to a user's blacklist (action836).

FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate exemplary user interfaces by which a user,such as user 145, may interact with and/or configure systems 100, 101,200, and/or any component included therein. For example, user interface900 of FIG. 9A displays an exemplary set of settings for a call controlunit. User interface 900 may be displayed responsively to a userselection of “Settings” from a list of call control configurationinformation/options 915. User interface 900 may include a networksettings window 905. Network settings window 905 may include informationregarding various settings (e.g., IP address, gateway ID, primary DNS,secondary DNS, netmask ID, etc.) and some, or all, of these settings maybe user configurable or set automatically by default. User interface 910may further include a call blocking window 910. Included within callblocking window 910 may be user configurable settings for call blocking(block anonymous calls, report blocked calls, etc.) FIG. 9B displays adashboard user interface 901 including features such as a listing oflast calls 920, a white list 925, a black list 930, an infographic 935,and a statistics display 940. Exemplary infographic 935 and statisticsdisplay 940 may relate to, for example, incoming and/or outgoing calland/or call control activity. One or more of the features of userinterface 901 may be interactive so that, for example, when a feature isselected by a user, additional information and/or configuration optionsrelated to the feature are displayed (not shown).

FIG. 10 depicts a process diagram illustrating an exemplary process 1000for controlling a call. Process 1000 is executed via communicationbetween PSTN 105, call control unit 135, telephone 130, server 115 anddata store 120. In some instances, this communication may be protectedwith a security protocol such as encryption. In step 1010, an incomingand/or outgoing call with caller and/or called party identificationreceived by PSTN 105 may be communicated to call control unit 135.Exemplary caller and/or called party identification information includesa name of an individual, company, or business entity associated with theincoming and/or outgoing call, a time of day at which the call isincoming to the PSTN, and a geographic location associated with thecall. The caller and/or called party identification information may thenbe communicated to server 115 (step 1015). Server 115 may then requestadditional caller and/or called party information from data store 120(step 1020) and, if the requested information exists (i.e., is stored indata store 120), it is communicated to server 115 (step 1025).Additional caller and/or called party information may include, forexample, whether the caller and/or called party is associated with auser's blacklist or whitelist or a “do not call list.” When theadditional information exists, server 115 may communicate it to callcontrol unit 135 (step 1030) which may, in turn, perform an operation onthe incoming and/or outgoing call responsively to the additionalinformation (step 1035). The operation performed may be one or more ofthe operations described below with reference to FIG. 11. For example,call control unit 135 may transmit the incoming and/or outgoing call totelephone 130 and enable telephone 130 to receive the incoming and/oroutgoing call (step 1035 a). Alternatively, call control unit 135 mayforward the incoming and/or outgoing call to a voice mailbox (step 1035b) or answer and then terminate the incoming and/or outgoing call (step1035 c). Call control unit 135 may also transmit a recorded message tothe caller and/or called party and terminate the incoming and/oroutgoing call (step 1035 d) or simply terminate the incoming and/oroutgoing call (step 1035 e).

FIG. 11 depicts a process diagram illustrating an exemplary process 1100for generating a spam score for identification information associatedwith an incoming and/or outgoing call. Process 1100 is executed viacommunication between PSTN 105, call control unit 135, and server 115.In some instances, this communication may be protected with a securityprotocol such as encryption. In step 1101, an incoming and/or outgoingcall and caller and/or called party identification information isreceived at PSTN 105 and is routed to call control unit 135 (step 1110).Call control unit 135 then analyzes the incoming and/or outgoing calland associated identification information and executes one or moreoperations on the incoming and/or outgoing call such that in step 1102,the incoming and/or outgoing call is blocked or at step 1104 theincoming and/or outgoing call is let through to, for example atelephone.

When the incoming and/or outgoing call is blocked, as in step 1102, ablocked call report may be generated and sent to server 115 (step 1120).Blocked called report may include, for example, configuration settingsutilized by call control unit 135 to analyze the incoming and/oroutgoing call, identification information associated with the incomingand/or outgoing call, and/or block the incoming and/or outgoing calland/or information relating to the call, the caller and/or called party,and/or the called party. Next, in step 1103, server 115 may evaluate ablocked calls count for the caller and/or called party utilizing, forexample, the block call report of step 1120 and other informationaccessible by server 115 relating to the blocked call.

When the incoming and/or outgoing call is not blocked, a monitoringreport may be generated and sent to server 115 (step 1130). Themonitoring report may include, for example, configuration settingsutilized by call control unit 135 to analyze the incoming and/oroutgoing call and/or not block the incoming and/or outgoing call and/orinformation relating to the call, the caller and/or called party, and/orthe called party. Next, and step 1109, server 115 may evaluate anoriginated calls count for the caller and/or called party utilizing, forexample, monitoring report 1130, blocks call report 1120, and/or otherinformation accessible by server 115 relating to the call.

In step 1106, server 115 may evaluate an origin and/or destination ofthe caller and/or called party in order to determine, for example, anentity (e.g., telemarketer or spammer) responsible for placing the call.In step 1107, third-party data relevant to the caller and/or calledparty may be collected. Exemplary third-party data includes FCC/FTC DoNot Call Registry information as well as information from other publicand/or private sources (e.g., state or local governmental agencies).Server 115 may then determine a spam score for the caller and/or calledparty. The spam score may be a representation of a probability that acaller and/or called party is placing unwanted calls or a degree towhich the caller and/or called party is known to place unwanted calls.In cases where a spam score has already been associated with the callerand/or called party, server may, at step 1199, update the spam scoreaccording to the evaluation.

FIG. 12 depicts a process diagram illustrating an exemplary process 1200for using a spam report submitted by a user to generate or modify a spamscore for identification information or phone number(s) associated withan incoming and/or outgoing call. Process 1200 may be executed by, forexample, user 145, call control unit 135, and server 115, wherein atstep 1210 a user generates and files a spam report. In some instances,communication between user 145, call control unit 135, and/or server 115may be protected with a security protocol such as encryption. Exemplaryuser generated spam reports may include caller and/or called partyidentification information (e.g., phone number), call type (e.g.,telemarketer, potential danger of identity theft, etc.), and/or time ofday call was received. The spam report may them be submitted to callcontrol unit (step 1212) and/or communicated to server 115 (step 1211).

In some embodiments, user 145 may elect to add the caller and/or calledparty's phone number to a personal blacklist (step 1216) and, uponsubmitting this election to call control unit 135, call control unit 135may then add the phone number to the user's personal blacklist stored oncall control unit 135 (step 1217). Call control unit may also notifyserver 115 that the caller and/or called party's phone number has beenadded to the user's blacklist.

In other embodiments, user 145 may elect to add the caller and/or calledparty's phone number to a personal whitelist (step 1219) and, uponsubmitting this election to call control unit 135, call control unit 135may then add the phone number to the user's personal whitelist stored oncall control unit 135 (step 1220). Call control unit may also notifyserver 115 that the caller and/or called party's phone number has beenadded to the user's whitelist.

In step 1299, server 115 may generate a spam score for the caller and/orcalled party's identification information/phone number using one or moreof the following evaluations: the number of spam reports associated withthe caller and/or called party's phone number (step 1211), the rate ofreceipt of incoming reports relating to the caller and/or called party'sphone number (step 1213), the credibility of user 145 (i.e., is the userknow for submitting false or correct spam reports) (step 1214), thequality of the report (step 1215), wherein reports of a higher qualityare weighted more highly than reports of lower quality, and/or thenumber of blacklists (step 1218) or whitelists (step 1221) the callerand/or called party's phone number appears on. The evaluations may beweighted so that evaluations that are deemed more dispositive forevaluating a spam score are weighted more highly than otherconsiderations.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process 1300 forproviding an inquiry to a caller and/or called party associated withadditional information. Process 1300 may be executed by, for example,the systems and/or system components described herein such as callcontrol unit 135 and/or server 115. In some embodiments, communicationbetween call control unit 135, server 115, and/or other componentsdescribed herein may be encrypted or otherwise protected with securityprotocols.

In step 1305, an indication of an incoming and/or outgoing call directedto a telephone from a caller and/or called party may be received by, forexample, a call control unit such as call control unit 135. The callcontrol unit may be communicatively coupled to, or resident within, thetelephone and may be positioned between a telecommunication serviceprovider providing the incoming and/or outgoing call and the telephone.In most cases, the incoming and/or outgoing call is associated with thecaller and/or called party's telephone number (i.e., a telephone numberthat is not a telephone number for the called telephone).

Next, a server and/or database coupled to the server (e.g., data store120) may be queried by, for example, the call control unit to determinewhether additional information associated with the telephone number andthe caller and/or called party exists (step 1310). Exemplary additionalinformation includes, but is not limited to, a spam score, inclusion ofthe calling party on a called party's black list, inclusion of thecalling party on a called party's white list, a location from which thecall is made, an identity of a caller and/or called party associatedwith the calling party's phone number, a mechanism via which a call ismade (e.g., traditional PSTN or a VoIP call) and so on. In somecircumstances, the additional information may be encrypted.

When no additional information exists and/or the additional informationthat does exist indicates that a person affiliated with the telephonewould like to receive calls from the caller and/or called party'stelephone number (e.g., the caller and/or called party's telephonenumber is on the called party's white list), the incoming and/oroutgoing call may be transmitted/forwarded to the telephone (step 1315).

When there is additional information then, it may be determined whetherit is appropriate to provide an inquiry to the caller and/or calledparty (step 1320). In some instances, the determination of step 1320 mayinclude a determination of whether or not the additional informationmeets one or more criterion. For example, if a call meets, or exceeds, athreshold value for a spam score, then process 1300 may proceed to step1325. In another example, if the additional information is a country oforigin for the call, step 1320 may include a determination of whetherthe called party typically receives calls from the identified country oforigin or whether the identified country of origin is a country knownfor providing unwanted calls (e.g., telemarketing calls or robo-calls) acall is known to have originated in a country other than the country inwhich the called party is located, then process 1300 may proceed to step1325.

When it is not appropriate to provide an inquiry to the caller and/orcalled party (step 1320) then the incoming and/or outgoing call may berouted/transmitted to the telephone (step 1315). When it is appropriateto provide an inquiry to the caller and/or called party (step 1320) thenthe caller and/or called party may be provided with an inquiry at step1325. The inquiry may be provided in an audio format and, in someembodiments, may include transmission of a question to be answered bythe caller and/or called party. In some circumstances, the inquiry maybe a threshold inquiry to determine whether a person or a computer isthe caller and/or called party. For example, the inquiry may be assimple as “say your name” or “what state do you live in” and any answer,provided that is given by a person, may be correct/accurate. In someembodiments, the inquiry is compliant with a challenge-responseauthentication protocol such as Completely Automated Public Turing testto tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA). An objective for posingthe inquiry to the caller and/or called party is to differentiatebetween computer-generated, or computerized autodialed calls, (so-calledrobocalls) and calls placed by a human being. A called party may wish todifferentiate between these two types of calls because it is more likelythat a robocall is an unwanted call than a call from a human being.

In step 1330, it may be determined whether a response to the inquiry isreceived and, if so, whether the response is correct/accurate. When theresponse received is correct/accurate, then the incoming and/or outgoingcall may be routed/transmitted to the telephone (step 1315). When theresponse received is not correct/accurate, then the incoming and/oroutgoing call may be blocked (step 1335). Blocking the call may include,but is not limited to, terminating the call, forwarding the call to anautomated response mechanism, forwarding the call to a call-answeringservice, forwarding the incoming and/or outgoing call to a voicemailbox, and answering the incoming and/or outgoing call and thenterminating the incoming and/or outgoing call.

Hence, methods, systems, and devices for inbound call control have beenherein described.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving an indication ofan outgoing call at a call control unit communicatively coupled to, orresident within a telephone, the indication including identificationinformation for the outgoing call; and determining whether additionalinformation regarding a called party associated with the identificationinformation exists, and if so, performing a first operation on theoutgoing call responsively to the additional information, otherwise,performing a second operation on the outgoing call responsively to anabsence of the additional information.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining whether additional information regarding a called partyassociated with the identification information exists is performed atthe call control unit using information retrieved from a locallyaccessible data store.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein determiningwhether additional information regarding a called party associated withthe identification information exists comprises: forwarding theidentification information from the call control unit to a server,wherein the server is operative to determine whether the additionalinformation regarding a called party associated with the identificationinformation exists; receiving from the server, if the additionalinformation exists, the additional information regarding the calledparty associated with the identification information, otherwisereceiving from the server an indication that no additional informationexists.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operation is atleast one of blocking the outgoing call, forwarding the incoming call toa voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming call to the telephone,enabling the telephone to receive the incoming call, and answering theincoming call and then terminating the incoming call, and warning acaller about harmful called party.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein theadditional information includes a user-configurable list of at least oneof desired called parties and undesired called parties.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second operationsperformed on the incoming call is user configurable.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving an indication at the call controlunit that the outgoing call is undesired; and communicating, by the callcontrol unit, the indication to a server.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the additional information includes a user-configurable list ofat least one of desired and undesired called parties, the method furthercomprising: receiving an indication at the call control unit that theoutgoing call is undesired; and automatically adding the identificationinformation for the undesired outgoing call to the user-configurablelist of undesired called parties.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theadditional information includes at least one of caller or called partyidentification information and a spam score.
 10. A call control unitcomprising: an input for receiving an indication of an outgoing call,the indication including identification information for the outgoingcall; a processor communicatively coupled to the input, the processorconfigured to determine whether additional information regarding acalled party associated with the identification information exists, andif so, performing a first operation on the outgoing call responsively tothe additional information, otherwise, performing a second operation onthe outgoing call responsively to an absence of the additionalinformation; and a communication port configured to enable the callcontrol unit to communicate with a telephone responsively to at leastone of the first operation and the second operation.
 11. The callcontrol unit of claim 10, wherein the first operation is at least oneof: blocking the incoming or outgoing call, forwarding the incoming callto a voice mailbox, transmitting the incoming call to the telephone,enabling the telephone to receive the incoming call, and answering theincoming call and then terminating the incoming call, warning a userabout harmful called party.
 12. The call control unit of claim 10,further comprising: a memory communicatively coupled to the processor,the memory being configured to store the additional information.
 13. Thecall control unit of claim 10, wherein the additional informationincludes a user-configurable list of at least one of desired andundesired called parties.
 14. The call control unit of claim 10, whereinat least one of the first and second operations performed on theoutgoing call is user configurable.
 15. The call control unit of claim10, wherein the input is further configured to receive an indicationthat the outgoing call is undesired and the processor is furtherconfigured to communicate the indication to a server.
 16. The callcontrol unit of claim 10, wherein the additional information includes auser-configurable list of at least one of desired and undesired calledparties, the input is configured to receive an indication at the callcontrol unit that the incoming or outgoing call is undesired and theprocessor is further configured to automatically add the identificationinformation for the undesired incoming or outgoing call to theuser-configurable list of undesired callers and called parties.
 17. Asystem comprising: a telephone network communicatively coupled to a callcontrol unit, the telephone network being configured to transfer anoutgoing telephone call to a call control unit communicatively coupledto or resident within a telephone; the call control unit configured toreceive an indication of the outgoing call, the indication includingidentification information for the outgoing call, the call control unitbeing further configured to determine whether additional informationregarding a called party associated with the identification informationexists and, if so, performing a first operation on the incoming oroutgoing call responsively to the additional information, otherwise,performing a second operation on the outgoing call responsively to anabsence of the additional information, wherein at least one of the firstand second operation is transferring the outgoing telephone call to thetelephone; and the telephone for receiving the incoming telephone callfrom the call control unit and transferring the outgoing call to callcontrol unit.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the call control unitis further configured to request the additional information from aserver, the system further comprising: a database configured to storethe additional information; and the server communicatively coupled tothe call control unit and the database, the server being configured totransmit a request to the database for the additional information,receive the additional information from the database, and transmit thereceived additional information to the call control unit.